Christmas Wreath

It's beginning to feel like Christmas!

I made this wreath from Frazier Fur branches the tree lot guy gave me when we bought our tree. I have enough left to do a smaller wreath. I love making wreaths and usually do a fresh one every year for my front porch.





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New art course

http://jeanneoliverdesigns.com/blog/2013/12/03/brand-new-art-e-course-and-a-huge-art-supply-giveaway/#comments




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Experience each day

I didn't set out to do another thankful page but it just happened so I thought I'd share. I did this watercolor earlier in the month but knew the page wasn't finished. I hadn't found a quote that I felt fit this page. But this morning I saw this quote and felt it was perfect for what I wanted. Now the page is finished and I am happy with it.




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All you need is love

This art journal page was inspired by our church bulletin. The minute I saw it, I knew I had to do a page with it. It is based on I Cor. 13.




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Thankful

I've done quite a few things lately but I just haven't posted. This art journal page was a result of a challenge. I love fall and all the beautiful colors of fall. The challenge was to do something about being thankful. I have so much to be thankful for in my life, I just wanted to express that thankfulness.




I used alcohol inks on parchment paper to make the leaves. The bigger background leaves were inspired by some real leaves I found in a store parking lot. They were drawn, painted and cut out to collage on the background. After collaging I added some more color with pan pastels. The three oak leaves were die cut on some book paper and paper towels used in cleanup from another project. I used my black stabilo pen to give depth to the leaves.
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Fly

Time to spread your wings and fly




Inspired by a challenge to use three diecuts.


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Junelle's new class

Just watched the open house teaser video for Junelle Jocobsen's new class. Here's the link :
http://yesandamenblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-art-of-goodness.html

She's a great teacher and her videos's are fun to watch. She has such a sweet spirit. I've enjoyed every class I've taken with her.

She has an open house this week and is posting some samples to get you interested. Here's a quick and I mean quick, like three minute watercolor I did from watching her open house video. For this one, I decided to use water color pencils.




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Falling Leaves

This art journal spread was really fun to create. It was inspired by a page that I saw where the artist used manilla tag's as the base to create the leaves.

This jump started my creative energy and off I went. I love this page!

I used Manila tags as the base to cut the tags, acorns, and pumpkins. The media included in these two pages were distress stains. Inks, gelatos, paints, Pitt pens, gesso, thread, stamps, TH tissue paper, glossy accents and grunge letters.




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Mrs. Pumpkin Man

An oldie but now a classic Fall decoration. I did this one back in 1999. It is acrylic done on slate. I love her and display her every Fall!




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Door Challenge

I was challenged to do a door, any door, any medium. I chose a rust door done in watercolor and some mixed mediums elements thrown in. Just playing and having fun.




I decided to take this piece and make a journal page. I love to use created background pages to enhance the artwork.




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Think FALL

I am thinking FALL today!

I love the colors and smells of fall. All the reds, yellows, oranges, greens and rust colors immediately bring fall images to my mind. This is the time of year when I get my ALL things pumpkin fix. This year they have a new pumpkin flavor of M&M's. had to go to two Target stores to buy what ended up being the last bag. Very good!

Pumpkin flavored coffee and creamer is my favorite coffee. I always buy enough to get me through the year because it is usually only sold in the fall.

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Breathe

This page was built around the orange/rust colors in this girl. She was on a piece of junk mail that I got. When I saw her I knew I wanted to create a page in my journal around her. I just loved the colors.




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In the Meadow

I enjoy working with alcohol inks on Yupo paper. This is another of my first attempts at this process.




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The Unknown Bird

I painted this bird in watercolor on canvas paper. I used Dr. Ph. Martin's hydrus watercolors. They are so intense. They have such a different effect than the traditional pan or tube watercolors. I'm trying to get used to painting with them.

The canvas paper has a different tooth than the watercolor paper. It soaks in the paint faster and doesn't pool as easily. I like working with it, but it is taking some getting used to.

At first I wasn't very happy with this bird, but now that it has dried I think he's ok. My inspiration was a picture I found and now can't even remember where I found it. Hence the title, the unknown bird.

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Alcohol Ink and Yupo paper

Last week, while traveling, I went to Cheap Joe's to get some art supplies. They have things that our local stores don't carry. I always spend too much when I'm there, but since that isn't very often, it's ok.

I picked up some watercolor paper, and a Golden paint I hadn't seen before. But my big purchase was a "set 2" of Dr. Phil Martin's hydrus watercolor paints. I love working with them because they are fluid and the pigments are so intense. I have " set 1" but hadn't seen set 2 anywhere. I had to get them. I just had to!

I'd heard about a paper called Yupo. While walking down an isle, I saw a pad of the paper. Having no idea what medium was used on it, I asked the sales person. Not much info from her. But as I was checking out I saw a lady that was buying a pack. So I asked her what was she going to use it for. She opened up a whole new line of mixed media to me. She explained that it was a synthetic paper and was used mostly with alcohol inks. Yay, I have lots of those. Told me to search on you tube and blogs, that it was all the rage. Well, once you know what to look for, it is everywhere.

So all that said, I started playing. This is one of my first attempts. It is fun and just like gelli printing, it is addictive.




I think they look just like flowers. But then again, it could be my imagination!

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Egg-tastic

Chicken eggs in a nest influenced by the Frugalcrafter Lindsay. Her site is thefrugalcrafter.wordpress.com
This was done in watercolor. I love to watercolor!




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Quote

Saw this quote today. How true!

"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."

---Henry Ward Beecher

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The Farm

My friends live on a farm. We love to go and spend time with them. Since I was playing with watercolors today, I decided to do this scene of the barn and the mountains on canvas paper. It was from a photo i took last time we went to see them. It's small but I love it. Think I'll frame it and hang in my studio. Looking at it makes me happy!




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Flowers fever

I've worked in my journal a lot this week but haven't had time to post any of the pages. It is more fun to paint than to post. LOL
Here is a page I did in acrylics and used some Pitt pens and charcoal for shading and outlining. I love to feel a page after it has been painted in acrylics and coated in gell medium.
This is a technique I saw Donna Downey do and I wanted to try it. You create a wild background, paint your focal points and then paint over your original background letting some of it show through. Add some textures for interest and you!re through.
I think I'll try this again. It was fun.




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Art is good for the brain.

Art makes you more observant. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Painting embraces all the ten functions of the eye; that is to say, darkness, light, body and color, shape and location, distance and closeness, motion and rest.” Creating art helps you learn to “see” by concentrating on detail and paying more attention to your environment.


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Colorful Tag

Challenge for this was to make something colorful. Use the neons if possible. I love birds so I decided on this colorful little tag.




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First video

I made a short video on the Gelli Journal I finished this weekend and posted yesterday. I've watched a lot of videos on artists showing the finished project or how to tut's. I thought I'd give it a try on this project. I had to hold my Ipad in one hand and try to turn the pages with the other one. It's not as easy as they all make it look. When I reached for a couple of products I wanted to show, the video picked up the sounds of my moving. Sounds like a train coming through. I don't have a way of editing this video, so I'll just post as it was filmed. I'll be able to look back at my first video and laugh. If you can't laugh at yourself, what's the point? At least I'll have a record of the completed journal.

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Handmade Gelli Journal

I made this Journal using the top lid of a Krispy Kreme box. The inside pages are all created with the gelli plate. I like it so much that I probably won't even alter the pages inside, at least for awhile.








The texture on the covers were created with wood filler, stencils, paint, varnish, sanding between layers and then a final seal using Dorland's cold wax medium. The signatures were bound with a pamphlet stitch. The beads from my stash were added as a decorative element.



A couple of examples of the inside pages. There are three signatures with seven (8 1/2 x 11 inch) folded pages in each signature. That comes out to 86 different half page surfaces to either continue to alter or enjoy. Right now I'll probably leave them as is and just enjoy. The designs that you can achieve with the Gelli plate are so pretty that sometimes it is hard to even consider doing something else to them.
This was a lot of fun to create and done over a period of time.
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Mail Art Swap

Joined a mailart swap. The theme was use one color. So I decided on pink. You could use white and black also. Mailed off my little pig today. I hope the recipient enjoys her.




This is the comment from the girl that received her mail art. "Hi! I received my mail art today, too! Well, actually, it may have arrived sooner, but I just went to get the mail today, so it was a great surprise! It's so colorful, and I love the texture! Thanks for all of your hard work. Yes, it's funny we both chose pink! Great minds think alike! Haha!".

Of all the colors to choose from in the color palette, we both chose pink. Thought that was kinda funny.

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Day at the Beach

This AJ page was inspired by a background page I did earlier this summer on book paper with paint swirls. Sorry I didn't remember to take a picture before I got started. Today when I looked at the background it reminded me of water. Using a picture I took of my daughter earlier this summer at the beach as my inspiration I created this page. I was sitting behind her on the beach and thought this would be a cool angle for a photo. I did change her hat to something from my imagination. It was done with more book paper pieces and painted with heavy body acrylics. I love my little seagull. He has such dimension I feel like he's going to fly off the page.




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